BF College Football Week 3 Recap

I’m back from the weekend in Syracuse for the Penn State/Syracuse game. It wasn’t much of a game, it wasn’t expected to be. The Syracuse campus is very nice as are all the people. Their mindset at this point is basketball is only there to kill time until basketball season starts.

Notre Dame/Charlie Weis
Matt: I only saw bits and pieces of the game, but Notre Dame got out to a quick commanding lead, and Michigan couldn’t hold onto the football to save their lives. The Weis injury looked pretty awful. He is a pretty big guy, and all that weight coming down on that knee must have torn up those ligaments pretty good. For the first time ever, I actually got a kick out of his news conference. I enjoyed his joking about him “finally feeling like an athlete for the first time ever” and that “Tommy Brady has got nothing on me.”
Mike: I was shocked to see ND get out to such a big lead. I didn’t think their offense had anything going for it and Michigan seemed like they were capable of putting a few drives together. All the Charlie Weis comments in the group I was with were comparisons to JoePa’s injury at Wisconsin. The concensus was that it’s time for Weis to start thinking about retirement. The game has clearly passed him by.
Ahad: Charlie annoys me more and more each week. I feel bad that he got hurt, and it did look very painful. But let’s keep things in perspective. They beat up on a bad Michigan team. ND still stinks.
Evan: I was more surprised that Notre Dame put up 35 points than I was that they actually beat Michigan. I still don’t put much stock in this, as I’m not so sure Michigan is any good.

USC
Matt: They were pretty dominant and looked like the best team in the nation.
Mike: Who is capable of testing USC? I don’t think we learn from this game until OSU plays someone else decent.
Ahad: USC was unstoppable. I am pretty sure their second string could have easily beaten up on OSU.
Evan: Scary good. They will give UF a good game in the BCS championship.

Ohio State
Matt: Yet again crumbled on the big stage. They were moving the ball pretty well early on and shot themselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers. Pryor is indecisive and doesn’t seem all that dynamic yet to me. I didn’t like the shuffling of QB’s every other play. With Pryor in the game, the play calls were predictable.
Mike: It looked like OSU was keeping pace until a few calls went against them and they fell behind a little bit. I only saw the first half but from the score they must have already accepted defeat when they came out in the 2nd half.
Ahad: OSU started out well getting on the board first, but then fell apart. They couldn’t keep up with the talent of USC. Pryor didn’t impress me. He didn’t look like the dynamic force he has been hyped up to be. I have a feeling that he will take over the starting spot within a few weeks.
Evan: At the same time, I have held the belief that Ohio State has been the most overrated college football program since they “beat” Miami for the Nat’l Championship.

Pac 10
Matt: Well, Cal stunk it up in Maryland, waking up a little too late to pull off the comeback. Oregon snuck past Purdue barely. Not sure what to think of the conference. USC is in a class by itself. Maybe Oregon or Arizona State could give USC a game. Wazzu and UW are dreadful.
Mike: A lot of bad losses. The only wins came from USC, Oregon St, and Oregon (who had to come back and take Purdue to OT). All the other teams had ugly losses.
Ahad: Other than USC, this conference had a bad weekend. Maybe next week the conference can redeem itself when Arizona State battles Georgia.

SEC
Matt: Again the dominant conference, but some of the teams in the Top 10 struggled a bit. Is Georgia really the best team in the conference? Auburn could only muster a field goal against Miss. State. Florida has struggled some on offense. LSU has looked pretty strong, as has Alabama. But I will leave the SEC talk to our resident expert, Evan.
Mike: Once again the best conference but how painful must that Auburn/Mississippi St game have been to watch? 3-2? That could rival the worst game I’ve ever witnessed, Iowa beating Penn State 6-4. The SEC won all of its non-conference games, not that they played any particularly challenging teams. Still, you have to win against even the lower opponents. It helped too that Arkansas’ game against Texas was postponed.
Ahad: The SEC has looked good so far. They will hurt themselves for the BCS Championship when they start beating up on each other. For now, I will give them the nod as the top conference.
Evan: The SEC did not go completely undefeated in their non-conference play. Miss St lost to La Tech, Ole Miss lost to Wake Forest, and Tennessee lost to UCLA (which really doesn’t look very good now). I think the SEC is very top-heavy, the only problem is there are 5 teams I think could win the conference – LSU, Bama, Auburn, UF, and Georgia.  I also would put any 5 of them up against any team in the country outside of South-Central Los Angeles. Ahad is right that they will start beating up on each other soon. Mike is wrong about the Auburn-Miss St game, in that SEC fans appreciate that kind of game, they love defense, although the fans in the stadium probably thought it was better than those watching on tv. Georgia is still a very good team, there is no such thing as “margin of victory” in the SEC. There are too many rivalries and emotion plays a big role in leveling the playing field. (Note: I was saying the SEC won all their non-conference games this week. As for defense in low scoring games … the problem in the Iowa/PSU game I mentioned was a lack of offense rather than good defense. – Mike)